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Jon_4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
Ver. 4. Doest thou do well to be angry?] Or, what? art thou very angry? Nunquid recte? Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment, and see whether there be a cause. "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?" Mat_20:15. Shall I not show mercy on whom I will show mercy? Or enviest thou these poor Ninevites their preservation, for my sake? Cannot I provide for mine own glory and for thine authority by other means and ways than thou imaginest? Have patience, Jonah, and rest better satisfied with my dispensation. "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." For, I wot well, the "wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," Jam_1:19-20. This thou wilt see, and say as much, when thou comest to thyself, for now thou art quite off; and being transported as thou art,
“ Nil audire voles, nil discere, quod levet aegrum ”( Horat.).
Jerome seeks to excuse Jonah’s anger; but God here condemneth it, as not well: and Jonah himself, partly by not answering it again, and partly by recording the story, seems to say of himself, as Father Latimer doth in another case (Serm. 3rd Sund. in Advent), I have used in mine earnest matters to say, Yea, by Saint Mary, which indeed is not well. Anger is not altogether unlawful so it be well carried. It is, saith one, a tender virtue; and as it is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, so here. Let a man ask himself this question, Do I well to be thus angry? and is mine indignation rightly regulated for principle, object, measure, end? If it be not, the Spirit of God will be grieved in the good soul, and sensibly stir; yea, thou shalt hear the correcting voice thereof within thee, saying, Doest thou well to be thus angry? Should not "all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away, with all malice?" And should ye not be "kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you?" Eph_4:30-32.